Tuesday, November 17, 2009

One of the things that drives me nuts is shipping stuff. Not mailing stuff out, though that can be a pain, but more the way stuff gets sent to me in containers that are insanely out of proportion.

Lets take Axert. This is a migraine drug that has no drug reps. So when I need samples I have to call them, asking them to ship me some.

Last week I called for samples, and they showed up today. It comes in a blue and yellow package with 4 little tablet packages in it. But it always ships in a freaking HUGE box, surrounded by a crapload of paper, like 2-5 trees worth.

So here's a picture of the entire Axert package and the box it was shipped in. I put a Diet Coke in the picture to give you some idea of size.

Of course, the Axert people aren't the only ones guilty of this insanity. I have a patient coming in for Botox injections later this week, so I ordered a bottle. ONE dinky bottle (which is freaking $560, too). Now, I understand Botox has to be kept cold during overnight shipping, and needs some styrofoam and ice, but even still the shipping seems to be a little excessive. So here, for your perusal, is a bottle of Botox, the box it came in, and another Diet Coke.

So, now you know how many trees it takes to ship a package of Axert or bottle of Botox.

26 comments:

I work in a research lab and we receive these humongous packages with small vial in too, it seems to be the norm. Sometimes we need to actually hunt for the whatever it is we ordered through the packaging to make sure we don't throw out the tiny stuff away in the garbage.

I think it's a distribution rule. As a college student I worked at a national video rental chain, where we'd regularly receive boxes twice that size with one rental DVD inside, and four hundred air pocket packs.

And people wonder why drugs are cost so much. I see it all the time at the pharmacy.

I got an overnight FedEx envelope from a drug company the other day that only included a letter explaining the FDA now required med guides for their drug (and included some med guides). I've know about this for months and my company (and every other large corpro pharmacy) prints them automagically when the rx is filled.

Hahaha. When I ordered Tyrosin TU (a medication for allergen immunotherapy), the two bottles (of 2ml and 2.5ml respectively) were inside a little box, and as I am doing two treatments at the same time they were two of those boxes. The company put them in a bubble envelope about letter sized. The bottles do have to be stored in the fridge but the company said it's fine to transport it without ice etc.I am just imagining right now getting these two boxes (with a total of four bottles) in a huge package as you did. Hahaha.

I am in the process of reorganizing the shipping department at the company I work for.

I was shocked when we ran the numbers and found out how much money it costs us to stock a wide variety of boxes. (We have 14 different sizes). Just by going to 4 standard sizes, we will save about 25% on our box purchases.

We worked closely with UPS and because of the weight and size of packages we send, weight is the determining factor in our cost.

It is therefore cheaper for us to use an oversize box and use more void fill materials than it was to stock a selection of smaller boxes.

My guess, the drug companies are doing the same thing. They stock one size of box in their shipping department and that is what you get.

They may very well have a contract with UPS (or other carrier) that gives them a preferential rate because they standardized on one shipping carton size. One size helps their carrier plan better too.

I recycle all packaging materials by donating them to several of my clients who have e-Bay businesses. This makes me feel a little greener and they're happy, too (apparently, bubble wrap is expensive).

The best example of oversized shipping I've seen occurred while I was working in a Reproductive Endocrinology clinic. The UPS man came in one day with a gigantic steel container, about the size of 3 oxygen tanks put together. While the office staff stared--'WTF is this thing for?!' we wondered--UPS man gleefully announced, "Here are your boys!" It was only then that we realized the container was for a semen sample from a sperm donor that one of our lesbian couples was going to use. Talk about small things in large packages! ;-)

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